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Re: 499 droop & manure

Dear Joe of Logan, Ohio:
	You mentioned you used 10 yards of manure, which I think is quite a pile
and must have been a lot of work.  With this much manure you probably don't
have a nitrogen defiency problem.  However, using manure in such quantities
could cause all kinds of problems all by itself.
	Manure is very powerful stuff and needs to be handled with great care
before it gets any where near the garden.  If it was fresh manure and you
did not compost it for a couple of months before spreading it on your plot,
you might now be burning up your plants.  This would show up first as
yellowing leaves later turning to a golden crispy brown.
	If you obtained your manure from a horse farm, you probably did not obtain
pure waste matter, but 99% wood shavings, possibly even cedar shavings and
this would also contain horse urine.  The horsey set really goes for cedar
these days (they house their ponies better than most humans could ever
afford to live.)  If this is the case the cedar could take years to break
down and become valuable as compost.  The wood shavings could a.) be
leaching acids into your plot, causing your plants to stunt, yellow and
wilt.  Or, b.) perhapse the wood shavings are actually decomposing in the
ground which would cause a temporary nitro loss, in which case your 1st
guess of a nitro defiency might be correct.
	In my area none of the horse farms use straw to bed their horses anymore. 
This was the absolute best mix for a good manure compost.  The only way to
get good horse manure today is to a.) follow behind the horses in the
parade, b.)  do something like an easter egg hunt in the paddock, c.) find
a poor horseman who still uses straw, or d.) selectively fork out
individual droppings from the stall's wood shavings.  In any case it would
take a very long time to end up with 10 cubic yards.
	Last note.  If you did use 10 yards of fresh manure, or huge amounts of
wood shavings, you should have a magnificently fertile plot . . . next
year.
	OK, this is really the last note.  If you suspect any of the above
mentioned problems, and if you've got very good drainage in your plot, I'd
suggest watering it  - more like flooding it - in an attempt to leach out
any acids, heat, etc.
	So I lied - one more note.  If you've other varieties of AG pumpkins
growing out of the same soil and they are not effected like your 499 and if
you suspect the 499 is a non-typical / inferior plant, consider roguing out
this plant so it can not possibly cross with your other varities.
	Best of Luck
Michael from Akron, Ohio
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